The Planning Authority has given the green light for the Grand Hotel Verdala in Rabat to be demolished and converted into a luxurious eight-storey complex, which also includes a hotel. 

The Verdala project, once associated with a controversial golf course application, will include a five-star hotel of 40 guest rooms, 17 aparthotel units and other serviced apartments as well as new blocks of 85 private apartments.

The Planning Directorate recommended the approval of the outline application, on Thursday morning, saying that the proposal would have a "moderate positive impact" when compared to the building mass there is at present. 

It also recommended the approval of a separate application to sanction the present hotel annex as it was built decades ago, with changes to the internal walls and some other minor differences from the approved permit in the 1990s. 

Located on a ridge, the hotel had significantly altered the Rabat skyline when it was inaugurated in 1971 as a 160-bedroom five-star hotel. It ceased operations in 1997 and was intended for redevelopment by construction magnate Angelo Xuereb. That project included an 18- hole golf course stretching down into the valley, a proposal which prompted major controversy and opposition from environmentalists and which was finally rejected by the planning authority.

Xuereb then applied to demolish the derelict hotel and split the large building mass into three blocks, introducing publicly accessible space in between the blocks. 

The Verdala hotel has been approved for demolition. Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

Architect Christian Spiteri, for the applicant, explained that what was being proposed was substantially less than what there was now. Apart from being a storey lower, the proposal was splitting the large hotel into three blocks, with open spaces in between. 

He said that no major excavation was required as the site was already excavated. He said there was underground parking available on site and this will be used for the new project. There will be an interconnection with the existing Virtu Heights building and underground parking spaces for around 160 vehicles.
The project will see three blocks of seven stepped storeys on the inhabited side of the site but eight floors at the rear overlooking the ridge.

The board was told that according to the environmental impact assessment, the project would be less of an eyesore on the skyline than the existing building.

This conclusion was based on an analysis of 11 viewpoints: from 10 of them, the new hotel would be an improvement on the existing skyline.
Residents told the board that the new hotel will be overshadowing their properties. But Spiteri explained that the project redistributed the entire permissible building volume to lessen the impacts, both on residents as well on the visual impact. 

Bjorn Bonello, who carried out the traffic impact assessment, said the biggest concern was the traffic onto Gorg Borg Olivier Street. There was no substantial increase in the number of cars, mostly 30 cars during the peak. No congestion was expected but the assessment focused on the changing traffic flows in the present road network and directing them towards streets with better visibility. 

Rabat mayor Sandro Craus said he was not too convinced about the impact on the traffic management system while the project was under way. The height was reduced the residents’ concerns seem to have bee addressed.  

At the end of the meeting, both applications, for the sanctioning of the existing hotel annex as it was built, as well as the outline development application for the demolition and redevelopment of the Verdala Hotel Complex, were approved with just one vote against.